Liquid cooled internal combustion engines are critically dependent on their coolant systems. Especially for larger engines such as are used for heavy trucks, construction equipment, and large stationary installations, the loss of engine coolant can result in destruction of the engine in fractions of a minute. The damage occurs well before even an alert driver can detect the problem. The loss of coolant is more critical than a mere insufficiency of coolant or some other situation where the engine simply runs too hot, but still within a range where the problem will likely be discovered in time to shut down the engine before the engine destroys itself. While this invention is at least partially responsive to these circumstances, the detection of these problems is not the primary objective of this invention.
The substantially total loss of coolant is the problem addressed by this invention. It is an object of this invention to enable it promptly to be detected and alarmed against. However, the system must also sort out other potentially confusing situations so that it will not alarm unnecessarily.
Therefore, it is one object of the present invention to provide a detection system which detects and alerts the driver to loss of coolant.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a pressure sensitive system which reacts to pressure in a coolant system, alerting a driver when pressure drops suddenly under circumstances where consequent overheating is dangerous.
A preferred object of the invention is that the system be adaptable to existing engine and cooling systems, so that the system can be simply mechanically connected in the flow of coolant in existing systems.